Alton Marina

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 164 - September 11, 2017

We had another 50 mile day, from Willow Island to Alton Marina, so once again it was get up, take Baxter to shore, have one cup of coffee and a piece of toast, and get going with the second cup of coffee underway!

We had a bit of a scare right off the bat underway - the Toshiba laptop would not turn on. I was already making plans to see if we could find a Best Buy in St. Louis to buy a cheap Windows computer, but Patty did a little research. What she found first was advice to remove the battery for 20 seconds, put it back in, and try to turn on the computer. I have no idea why this worked, but it did! Not having the laptop would have been a major problem, since that computer runs Coastal Explorer and is connected to the AIS that lets us identify tows on the river. I am not absolutely sure that I trust it completely now that it has failed to turn on. The computer and iPad display are now an indispensible part of our helm! 

Daydream's helm, with computer on shelf under center window and iPad on RAM mount

As we cruised down the lower Illinois River, we saw more and more homes along the riverbank. Many were cottages on stilts like this one, elevated to some code requirement above the 100 year floodplain. 

Typical elevated cottage along the lower Illinois River.
You can see that this is right on the riverbank, with the red daymark in the front yard!

Then we were in Grafton, Mile 0 of the Illinois River. Our trip had begun at Chicago, which is Mile 327, and at Mile 0 the Illinois flows into the Mississippi. From Grafton to Alton is maybe 15 or 20 more miles, but the current picks up noticeably on the Mississippi, and it seemed like we just flew down to Alton and the Alton Marina. Along the way we passed some interesting rocks above the shoreline that if you stretch your imagine a little (and maybe squint!) look a little bit like a castle!

Rocks above Mississippi that sort of look like a castle, if you have a good imagination!

The Alton Marina is right under the Clark Superbridge, and in fact you have to enter around one of the bridge supports! We radioed in that we would like to go to the fuel dock first to re-fuel, where Mark from the marina met us. We had now come 373 miles from Portage, Indiana, where we had last re-fueled. The Navman fuel flow meter is WAY off, and we had considerably less fuel that we thought we did! We were not in any danger of running out, but let's just say we were WAY past my comfort point, which is running off the top half! We got our slip assignment and motored around to H-14, where Mark was again waiting to help us into the slip. 

This is a very nice marina! All the slips are covered and hold one boat only, so you don't have to worry about hitting some other boat going into your slip! It has floating docks with a walkway and cleats on each side. I was ready for a shave and shower, so I headed up to the bathrooms.  The bathrooms here rival Trent Port Marina's bathrooms in design and functionality, each one being paneled in dark wood, with a counter with a sink and mirror, a toilet, and a shower stall. All necessary toiletries are provided, including body wash, shampoo  and conditioner. Bath mats and hand towels are provided, and there is a hamper for used linens right outside the door. After being in restrooms with no amenities and rusty pipes, this feels pretty luxurious! 

We will be meeting two couples here, both of whom have offered to help us re-provision, but both work and so we decided we will Uber to Walmart tomorrow so we can enjoy our time with new friends more leisurely than driving around shopping! So we made arrangements via telephone.

Les Rohlf is a C-Dory owner who lives in St. Louis who contacted us early on with an offer to help with whatever we might need. Les has a C-Dory 25 Cruiser like ours, but apparently is more of a "lurker" on the C-Brat web site than an active poster. Dave Bruder is a blog follower who just wanted to meet us, but also offered to help us re-provision.  We arranged to see Dave this afternoon, and Les tomorrow! 

Dave and his friend Debbie arrived at the marina to pick us up about 5:30 p.m. and suggested we go to Fast Eddie's Bon Air. Dave said it was a famous spot and very unique, and he was right! The Bon Air was built by Annheuser Busch in 1921, but had to sell it when tied-house laws were adopted prohibiting a brewery from owning a drinking establishment. In my view, there are very good laws, since otherwise A-B would probably have ended up owning every tavern and bar in America! In 1981, Eddie Sholar, aka "Fast Eddie," bought the Bon Air, and adopted the current format. It is 21 and over only, everyone must buy a drink, and ironically the one beer they do not have on tap is Bud Light! Later a limited food menu was added of French fries, boiled shrimp, burgers, bratwurst, a chicken kebab and a steak kebab called The Big Elwood - all sold at the same low prices as when  the food bar was added about 20 years ago! There was a duo playing in the big patio that is surrounded by the building on all sides. Waitresses come around for drink orders, and it is cash only pay as you go! I really can't say how "famous" it is, but it is unique for sure!

Pat, Patty, Debbie and Dave at Fast Eddie's Bon Air

Musical duo at Fast Eddie's patio

When we came back to the marina from Fast Eddie's, the Clark Superbridge looked just spectacular! Not sure this iPhone photo does it justice, but you can get an idea anyway!

The Clark Superbridge is directly above the Alton Marina!

We are looking forward to spending some quality time with Les and and his wife. We'll be meeting them at 6:15 p.m. tomorrow evening, and the one thing we WON'T be doing is shopping at Walmart!